


Blood of the Blue Star

by Serriya (Keolah)



Category: LE GUIN Ursula K. - Works, Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Alternate Universe, Elves, Fantastic Racism, Gen, Genetics, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-12-24
Updated: 2005-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-19 00:55:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/567222
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Serriya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shazmar creates a new world, populated by elves and ruled by the Seven Houses.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A New Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This is an alternate universe in which there are seven types of magic rather than five, with a house system modified from that of "Always Coming Home".

Shazmar decided that the time had come. He had learned much from his time with the Elkandu, and had likewise seen where he had gone wrong. There were ways to correct his mistakes, of course, but he felt that he had inflicted enough change upon them after all this. He didn't want to lose them. He was rather fond of them, after all.

And the changes he wanted to make would require them to die. That wasn't something he felt like seeing just yet. Certainly he had brought them back enough times. Too many times. Perhaps it was best to just leave them be and stay out of their business, let them grow and develop on their own for a time, and move on to something else.

He had tried this before, of course. A new world to incorporate what he felt were better conditions for his purposes. Maybe the problem simply was that he was too fond of the Elkandu and kept coming back to them time and again, and could not therefore stay focused on anything else.

Well, this time it would be different. This time, he would make his own connections to the world he was to create. And as well as that, it would be a connection to the Elkandu as well. He smiled to himself, and figured that this must be what he had intended all along when he had gotten himself reborn as the Heir of the Children of the Dragon's Blood.

In the Void, he raised his hands, and a world coalesced beneath him, shining and green as the richest emerald. For once, he wasn't sure what to call it. Did it need a name? He decided to leave it up to its inhabitants to come up with their own names for their world.

Sunlight spilled out upon the green forests and valleys as mountains thrust themselves into the sky, ice and snow gathering on their highest peaks. Rivers cut their way through valleys and canyons into lakes and oceans glistening blue beneath the golden sun. Three small moons drifted through the sky, little more than asteroids, visible only as spots of light from the surface.

He smirked over his handiwork, and wondered that he wasn't feeling particularly creative today. No blazing chariots of fire, no flying flowers of moonlight, just fairly normal chunks of space rock and balls of burning hydrogen. Was he losing his touch?

With something of a sigh, he put his wrists together and allowed mana to course through him into the planet. The carefully controlled violet flow surrounded and filled the world with radiant light. Not too much, not too much, he cut off the flow and examined his handiwork. The mana contained in the world appeared to be 42% of maximum, he judged. That would suffice.

Descending to the surface, he floated along within the forest. Animals, he thought. With gestures of his hands, insects flew and crawled about the surface, and fish began to swim in its waters. Birds took to flight in the trees and the mountains, then reptiles, amphibians, and small mammals, then large mammals and dragons. No world was complete without dragons.

But last but certainly not least, he had to populate the world with sentient humanoids, or there wouldn't be much of a story to tell. Well, he supposed he could focus it on dragons or something, but that just wouldn't be the same. It might be interesting, but no. That was not the point of this exercise. This was to be a story about the Children of the Dragon's Blood, not of the dragons themselves.

And so, to begin his new civilization, he brought in seven female elves from Wilderplane, of Theryn's descent, Dragonblood in each and every one of them. These would suffice, he thought. Within the magical sleep he had placed them in, he wondered if they even realized they had been moved, or if anyone knew they were missing. With a faint chuckle, he modified their memories and made sure that they would not be missed. It was less cruel to start them afresh than to tear them away from homes and families.

These ones would be special, his chosen ones, the Dragonbloods. But they could not be alone, of course. There would be nothing special about them if everyone was a Dragonblood. Within the valleys and the forests he floated along, and formed the elves from the leaves carpeting the forest floor, sleeping in the starlight night.

As golden sunlight dawned across the valleys, the elves awakened, their eyes blinking as they slowly stood up and looked about their new world. This was no time to be a child, he thought ruefully. Closing his eyes, he allowed his physical form to age until it was around 17, and set his feet firmly upon the earth he had created.

He taught them, his elves, his children. He taught them language and magic, beauty and song, pleasure and happiness. He also taught them sex, particularly with the seven Dragonblood women. Shazmar had told them how these seven were special, that the blood of dragons flowed through their veins, and their power was one unlike any other.

And then finally one day, one of the Dragonbloods gave birth to his firstborn. She lifted the baby girl so that he might see the child's bright green eyes peering out from a mess of dark hair, and he smiled.

This was the new beginning.


	2. Analisa

The name of the firstborn child was Analisa, and she was of the house of Asatakala. Mevarasi and Venari were jealous and angered over this fact, polarizing the rivalry that had existed between the Seven since the beginning. As the years passed and more children graced the earth, Analisa grew into a strong and healthy girl, beautiful and powerful. Magic of all sorts seemed to come easily to her.

"Why do Venari's and Mevarasi's children hate me?" she asked her mother one day.

"Oh, I don't think they hate you, Ani," Asatakala said. "They're just jealous of you. They wish they could have been you."

Analisa's instincts would not allow her to buy that explanation, however. When she was thirteen, one of Venari's children challenged her. He was a stout boy two years younger than her, and a pyromancer.

"Analisa, daughter of Asatakala," Sesanago declared. "You are not worthy of life! I have tolerated your existence long enough."

"Hey, leave her alone, Nago," said Varati, Korata's son. He had always been quick to defend Analisa from those who would torment her.

"You stay out of this, Varati," Sesanago snapped. "This is between me and her." He held up his hands, flames flicking at his fingertips.

"This isn't right, Sesanago," Varati insisted. "Stand down."

"Why do you hate me, Nago?" Analisa asked. "What did I ever do to you?"

"You were born!" Sesanago said. "You, instead of me!"

"I can hardly help having been born," she replied.

Sesanago growled, and flames flew through the air toward her. Analisa closed her eyes, fearing the worst, but when they reached her, they only felt pleasantly warm. Her own innate magic had protected her. She opened her eyes again, and Nago only grew angrier, continuing uselessly to try to harm her in his futile rage, but his flames could not burn her.

"I hate you," he snarled finally, and stormed off leaving a trail of singed leaves in his wake.

"Are you okay, Ani?" Varati asked.

She nodded numbly. "He didn't even hurt me." She was glad to have what friends she did have.

Analisa went back to her mother and told her of the incident. Her father was there, the great god Shazamaru, and he looked on her with his bright blue eyes and said, "You're far more powerful than him. You should meet up to his challenge and show him who is the stronger."

"I don't want to hurt him," Analisa murmured.

"You don't have to," Shazamaru said. "It's far more proof of skill and power to be able to demonstate it in that way without hurting anyone."

Analisa took his words to heart and kept thinking about the matter before she fell asleep that night. She woke the next morning to find Sesanago a steaming ball of rage. Little flames flickered around his feet and darkened the ground. To think that she was more powerful than him was something of remark when he continued to put in blatant displays of power such as this.

"This is as far as it goes, Sesanago," Analisa said. "This ends here today."

"With your defeat!" Nago screamed. Fire burst from his palms and shot toward her.

Analisa put up her hands, stopping the fire cold. Then, with a gesture, vines whipped around Sesanago and grabbed his arms and legs. Growling, Nago burned them away, fire licking around the outline of his body. She tried to hold him with ice, but he melted it away. Each thing she tried, he countered with his fire.

Ani thought to herself, could she not counter his fire? She brought the cold to bear again, focusing it on his flames when he sought to bring the fire about, stealing away their heat. The flames winked out, and Analisa again wrapped him in vines, suspending him above the ground and preventing any attempt at burning them with her frost.

"Aiee!" cried Sesanago as he dangled helplessly from the trees. His desparate attempts to free himself were met with failure. "That's not fair! Let me go!"

"You will not bother me again," Analisa said. "You will not call me unworthy. You will not challenge my birthright."

"Fine. Fine!" Nago gasped. "Now let me go!"

Analisa released the vines, dropping him roughly to the ground. Nago scrambled to his feet and ran back toward the village, casting one last glance toward her of mingled hate and fear, and then he was gone.


	3. The Second People

It was generations after the elves first woke in the forests and valleys where they made their home. Their great god, Shazamaru, had all but vanished, his visits among their villages becoming more and more infrequent. The Seven Houses had grown in dominance due to the inclusion of children of houseless elves within the house of their father if he had a house. If the mother had a house, the children were naturally considered part of the mother's house, as usual, but this change in customary law had caused the Seven Houses to become the most dominant structure in elvish government.

With the increase of population over the generations, the elves had to expand beyond their original territory, sending off groups to explore the countryside for more places which they could settle. One of these groups, a band of close cousins belonging to the house Korata, came upon the plains many leagues to the south of the birthplace of the elves.

Tamari Korata gazed down upon the open plains from the vantage point of a tall tree near the edge of the forest. He could make out what appeared to be smoke rising from the plains to the south. Climbing down the tree smoothly, he reported what he had seen to the band's leader, Verisita.

"Perhaps there is a fire on the open grass?" she suggested. "A lightning strike, perhaps?"

"It may be, it may be," Tamari said. "But the smoke rose in regular columns, not in billowing clouds. Do you think other people have come out here before us, and now have the fires of encampments burning on the flat land?"

"It may be," Verisita said. "We must investigate." So they gathered up their packs and began their trek across the open land.

As they grew closer to the source of the smoke Tamari had seen, it became more and more clear that there was no grass fire out on the wide flat place. Crude buildings could be seen in the distance, and movement of people who looked vaguely like them.

"I wonder which houses came out here," Agaralo said aloud. "I'd think we would have heard if Korata had settled out here. Maybe they're houseless people, who did not wish to live under the Seven Houses."

But when they grew close enough to see the people who lived here, it became clear that they were unlike any people they had ever seen. Their skin was dark as good earth, and their ears rounded like a tiger's, rather than pointed like a fox or a housecat. Upon seeing the strangers, several naked brown children came to stare at them.

The four Korata gazed back in wonderment at these people so like themselves, and yet so unlike themselves. They smiled to one another and went in to speak with the adults in the village. The strange people greeted them warily, but without malice. They spoke with words unlike their own, but after spending some time around one another, they were able to come to an understanding.

It was uncertain just how long these people had been living out here on the open plains. In their own words, they had been here for untold generations. They did not keep records so diligently as the elves did. It did not take long for them to come up with words to express each other's race, elves and humans, each of them people.

After spending a season among the humans of the plains, Verisita said, "We must return now to our people to tell them of what we have found here."

The human chieftain, Chelkan, whom the elves called Shelekanu, said, "When you go, take with you my daughter and three of my warriors, that they may see what your place is like."

Verisita agreed, and within a few days, the four Korata elves and four humans began their trek back across the wide plains toward the forests of the north. When they returned back to the village of elves, many people came to look at the humans the Korata had brought back with them.

A meeting was held among the leaders of the houses as to what they intended to do with the humans. Each house seemed to have a different opinion on them, some of which were irreconcilable.

"We should take them in to protect them and help them grow and flourish," said the leaders of Korata.

"We should teach them and learn about them, and learn what they have to teach us," said the leaders of Gelemara.

"We should kill them, all of them, wipe them out before they decide to do the same to us," said those of Venari.

"No, no, we should enslave them, control them. They would make useful servants," said Mevarasi.

"We should just leave them alone, really," said the house of Asatakala.

"What we do unto them, we do unto ourselves. The humans are our future," said Telana ambiguously.

"We should go fuck them a lot," suggested one young Hanadine. The others all stared at him.

Ultimately, Venari's and Mevarasi's unpleasant suggestions were overridden by the other houses. Diplomacy would ensure that they would reach the most agreeable compromise, as it had for generations. After much deliberation, they came to the agreement that was least offensive to Mevarasi, and offered the most freedom for all people involved.

The humans would be allowed to come and go as they chose, and if they wished to trade or learn, they could do so. No elves would be forbidden from having any sort of relationship with humans if they so wished, as it would, after all, bring them under the jurisdiction of the Seven Houses. It never even occurred to them that elves and humans might not be genetically compatable, since they were so clearly much like one another.

But this contact changed the elven society as it had been, slowly at first, but inexorably. Their language changed, as did that of the humans, as they borrowed words from one another for concepts of which they had had no knowledge before, and as elves and humans married one another and produced children. And it was to the great pleasure of a number of the elves that they learned that, while none of the humans carried within them the blood of the dragons themselves, their half-elven children could.

Thus brought upon a new era, and the world was forever changed.


	4. Worldbuilding Information

**The Seven Houses**

As on many worlds, descent on this world is matrilineal. For the first seven Dragonblood women, hence there were Seven Houses, the Great Houses. Even though not all of their descendants are Dragonblood or even elvish anymore, the Seven Houses are still the most central and pivotal structure and have, after many centuries, almost completely absorbed the other houses.

 **Venari** (Ancient Elvish: Venari)

The house of Venari tends to be warlike and aggressive, quick to charge in and quick to react. Recklessness, violence, a quick temper are all traits that mark the house of Venari. Always first to charge in and fight, they are not always without their own peculiar sense of honor. Destruction and mayhem is always considered a viable solution to just about any problem, however. They are the purest warriors at heart of the Great Houses, and their most common magical talents are Fire and Lightning. Its color is red and its symbol is a flame.

Typical schools taught by the Venari house include: fencing, brawling, knife-fighting, general combat, martial arts, blacksmithing, hunting, pyromancy, electromancy, and cryomancy.

 **Telana** (Ancient Elvish: Telana)

People of the house of Telana are known not only for their fearlessness but for their utter patience. A true Telana will wait any amount of time if they believe it will help. They have no fear of death, and consider life and death to be merely two sides to the same coin. Darkness and light, life and death, good and evil must go hand in hand, believe the people of Telana. There can be no thing without its opposite, the ultimate balance in the universe. Time and Soul are the most common magical talents among the Telana. Its color is black and its symbol is an hourglass.

The usual courses of study taught by the Telana include: weaving, farming, staff-fighting, caretaking, necromancy, healing, and chronomancy.

 **Korata** (Ancient Elvish: Korata)

Often refered to as holy knights, the house of Korata tends to be self-righteous and holier-than-thou on occasion, but they mean well. Honor and loyalty are very important to them, and they will rarely lie or break a promise. Self-sacrifice is considered a most sacred act among the Korata. They are always quick to help another who is in danger or pain. Healing and Security are the most common magical talents born among the Korata, talents to assist them in their goals of helping and protecting others. Its color is white and its symbol is a sword.

Classes often taught by Korata are: fencing, staff-fighting, riding, caretaking, herbology, law, medicine, healing, and farming.

 **Astakal** (Ancient Elvish: Asatakala)

More connected to nature than any of the other houses, Astakal has a deep sense of reverence for the wilderness. This is frequently reflected in their feral but calm demeanors, and they prefer to rely on their instincts rather than how things apparently seem to be. Because of humanoid tendancy for lying and dishonesty, they get along best with Korata and Glemarn, and generally prefer the company of their plant and animal friends instead. Earth and Change Magic appear most frequently among the people of Astakal. Its color is green and its symbol is a leaf.

The studies frequently learned by the Astakal include: staff-fighting, carving, riding, hunting, farming, herding, herbology, gardening, alchemy, tanning, geomancy, changing, and healing.

 **Glemarn** (Ancient Elvish: Gelemara)

Peaceful and meditative, the house of Glemarn values knowledge and internal contemplation over involvement in the world. They are most closely associated with the element of water, and like water, just go with the flow most of the time. Information and preservation of the knowledge of the ages is of utmost importance to the Glemarn, and hence many schools and libraries tend to be run by them. The most common talents born to the Glemarn are Water and Seeking, although the occasional telepath is not unusual. Its color is blue and its symbol is a drop of water.

The fields generally studied among the people of Glemarn are: scribing, sailing, fishing, farming, poetry, music, painting, weaving, farming, seeking, telepathy, hydromancy, and cryomancy.

 **Handene** (Ancient Elvish: Hanadine)

Flighty and whimsical, the house of Handene is likewise associated with the element of air. Flying is the greatest dream of any Handene, and mischief and a casual disregard for the rules tends to get the better of them occasionally. They are impulsive and tend not to think things really through before doing them. Hence because of this, the talents of Wind and Motion are the most common ones among the Handene. Its color is sky blue and its symbol is a feather or a swirl of air.

Young people of the house Handene typically can learn about: knife-fighting, martial arts, sailing, dancing, music, poetry, prostitution, illusion, aeromancy, travelling, telekinesis, seeking, and thievery.

 **Mevrasi** (Ancient Elvish: Mevarasi)

Greedy and manipulative, Mevrasi is often considered the darkest of the houses. Personal wealth and power tends to be among the primary considerations of a Mevrasi, but they aren't really all bad. They like to have things and own things, particularly money, gems, or rare items. Sometimes they may even consider people to belong to them and treat them accordingly. It therefore follows that the most common talents among the Mevrasi are Mind and Speech. Its color is yellow or gold and its symbol is a coin.

Schools available to the children of Mevrasi include: knife-fighting, acrobatics, merchantry, thievery, law, politics, prostitution, speaking, telepathy, psionics, and telekinesis.

* * *

**Elvish Culture**

The early elves were a simple people, and tended to live simply. They kept animals for food, clothing, and companions, but they did not have a particularly high level of technology. Family was extremely important, and primarily matriarchal. 

Children were much revered and not allowed to work until they reached the age of thirteen. School and play were considered of utmost importance to children. They were instructed heavily in reading and writing, basic magic, mathematics, herbology, and other studies. The elvish literacy rate was very nearly 100% even early on.

Elaborate toys were made by the elves for their children. Some of their more advanced talking dolls could even carry on a full conversation and had their own personality. Aside from the dolls, one of the more popular toys among elvish children was the koma, a magical spinning top that emitted colored lights and sparkles when it was spun. Elvish children would stare at the magical lights produced by the koma for hours on end if allowed to.

When children reached the age of thirteen, they chose a field to study for and would begin more specialized training in that area. The fields available were frequently dictated by what house the child belonged to, although occasionally children would be allowed to study with another house to learn a field outside their own house's usual area of expertise. For instance, if a young Mevrasi wished to become a warrior, he would likely go to combat training with the Venari. Choosing a field typical of only traditional enemy houses was frowned upon heavily. Children might change their mind at any time and switch fields, or continue general fields of study until they made a decision.

At some point in their lives, young elves might choose to marry, although it was not compulsory or particularly encouraged or discouraged. They might have sexual relationships with others on and off, experiment with their sexuality, even settle down with one partner for years without going through the marriage ceremonies. When two elves did marry, it was only permitted between members of different houses, and not traditionally opposed houses. Neither partner changed their name or house upon marriage. Any children produced from a union, whether from marriage or otherwise, were considered to belong to the mother's house only, unless the mother had no house, in which case they would belong to the father's house. Sexual relations between members of the same house was considered incest, regardless of how closely related the two individuals involved actually were. Such relations with members of enemy houses was discouraged and those involved were not allowed to marry one another. In fact, sexual relations with members of opposing houses was considered far more of a taboo than homosexuality, which was generally accepted by the early elves.

* * *

**Dragonblood**

The inheritance of Dragonblood is a bit of a complicated matter and not one that can be determined with much certainty without the aid of magic. Early on, the elves created devices which allowed them to test whether or not a child had the Dragonblood, typically in the form of a ball that glowed when held by a Dragonblood. In this manner they were able to keep some track on who had the Dragonblood and who did not.

The only certainty that could be determined was when only the father had Dragonblood, as subsequently all of his daughters would have the Dragonblood, and none of his sons. If the mother was the one with the Dragonblood, or both did, things got more complicated. Still, if the father was Dragonblood, all girl children would have it. But boy children could only gain the Dragonblood from their mother, and daughters could also gain it solely from their mother.

The prevalence of the mother's blood in whether or not the children were of the Dragonblood was one of the reasons for the matrilineal system. Since those with the Dragonblood were prefered partners over those without, the Seven Houses grew in strength and number, and by the time the humans appeared, there were few "houseless" elves around.

It wasn't known for certain for millennia later when genetic research made it clear that whatever it was that made a person Dragonblood was apparently located on the X chromosome. This allowed a woman (XX) to have both of them as Dragonblood. This didn't have any particular effect besides ensuring that all of their children would be Dragonblood regardless of what their father had. A man (XY) would therefore pass his Dragonblood X chromosome to his daughters, but could only contribute his non-Dragonblood Y chromosome to his sons.

* * *

**Purists**

Even as early as the days in which the second generation was being born, there were those who believed not only that the Dragonbloods were better than those who were not, but that they should make an attempt at keeping their Dragonblood as pure as possible. Mevarasi herself mourned the lack of any Dragonblood males to reproduce with.

The movement didn't gain much momentum during the first century before there was any way to determine whether or not a person even was Dragonblood or not in the first place. The purists of the time occasionalled used such erroneous terms such as "half-blood" and the like to refer to those whose ancestry they did not believe was pure. But all in all, the early purists were a radical and not very well supported group.

It wasn't until the first Dragonblood testing device was created, by Glemarn in fact, that the movement began to garner strength. Since it was now possible to determine beyond a shadow of a doubt whether or not a person had the Dragonblood or not, even though they could not determine it's exactly "purity", they were capable of more selective breeding.

The early devices were not sophisticated enough to determine whether a woman had one Dragonblood chromosome or both. Because of this, they determined that if a woman produced a child that was not Dragonblood, she must not have pure blood herself, and that likewise if all of a woman's children had the Dragonblood, she must be pure. Through successive generations it was determined that pure Dragonbloods could be produced from impure ones, and so a line of Dragonbloods came into being in the house of Mevrasi, and another in Venari. The following of the movement was smaller in the other houses, although not completely non-existent.

The exactly mechanics of the Dragonblood were not determined until generations later after patterns of birth were observed, particularly among parentage of mixed blood. It was quite a revelation when it was discovered that a man of Dragonblood and a woman not of Dragonblood would always produce Dragonblood daughters and non-Dragonblood sons. They didn't understand why, and at first believed it was some random chance, that the man must be only half-blood, but after a sufficiently large number of such children and parents were tested, the evidence supporting it became too much to deny.

The children of Dragonblood females and non-Dragonblood males seeming more random, it was then determined that the method for a Dragonblood couple to determine if the mother really was pure was if all of her sons were Dragonblood. If any of them were not, she could not be fully pure, and hence her daughters could not be considered to be fully pure (until proven after having several children).

It wouldn't be for over a thousand years later that devices sophisticated enough to determine beyond a doubt whether a woman was pure-blood or half-blood were created, but they certainly did try. If nothing else they eventually managed to dispel the myth that males could be half-blood.

First contact with humans in the latter half of the fourth century threw the purists for a loop, and further divided them, particularly after it was discovered that humans could carry the Dragonblood. Many of the Mevrasi purists felt that interbreeding with these beings would taint their blood and was the very anathema of the idea of being purists. Much of the Venari line, however, figured that blood was blood, and these humans must be close cousins of them if they could interbreed so easily. And so the lines continued much as before, with the Mevrasi deliberately avoiding anyone of any known human ancestry, regardless of their blood, and the Venari happily taking in blood half-elves to mate.


End file.
